Medal of Honor Airborne™ is the latest video game from EA's acclaimed Medal of Honor™ franchise, credited with pioneering the WWII first-person shooter genre after its debut in 1999.

Medal of Honor Airborne is set to redefine the series and change the way shooters are played by introducing you to an entirely new way of experiencing a WWII FPS. Fight through the largest Airborne operations in history and bring victory wherever you land. For the first time ever, jump from a C-47 aircraft and land anywhere in an open battlefield. Combat on the ground offers unprecedented tactical choice as you engage the Axis armies with an open variety of combat routes and flanking opportunities. View the entire operation from the air, and then control your parachute to choose your landing spot. On the ground, gather your senses and assess the terrain. A wide variety of authentic, customizable weapons are at your disposal, each with distinct characteristics. Choose your path in this free roaming FPS environment.

The Medal of Honor Airborne development team continues to ensure that the ideals and integrity of the prestigious congressional Medal of Honor are accurately reflected in the game. The producers sought counsel from numerous expert sources to make certain the game is historically accurate and as true to the WWII Airborne experience as possible.

Key Features:
The first step is everything - Unprecedented player choice.

• Start each mission with an airdrop into enemy territory where the landing spot you choose can dramatically change the course of battle. On the ground, tackle enemies and complete objectives in whatever order you chose as your navigate your way through a massive, free-roaming, non-linear FPS environment.
• Vertical Combat
• Fight on the ground or atop roofs, balconies, towers, ruins and natural formations in a variety of environments authentic to the European Theater of War.
• Affordance AI
• A formidable new AI system delivers unpredictable and intelligent enemies which challenge even your most battle-hardened strategies.
• Engaging the enemy triggers death animations unique to each and every encounter.
• Upgradeable Weapons
• For the first time, enhance your chosen weapon with authentic, customizable field modifications that affect your marksmanship.

GCM: Thank you for your time! Please get us started by introducing yourself and telling us about the creative team behind the next-gen debut of Medal of Honor.

CB: My name is Chris Busse, and I’m a Producer on Airborne. This team that created Airborne has certainly been one of the most agile I’ve worked with in a long time. I think we have continually amazed each other with what we’ve been able to bring together in this version of Medal of Honor.

GCM: Tell us about Boyd Travers. Is he based on an actual person or just the accumulation of research and documented events?

CB: He is the every-soldier, an accumulation of tales and stories and accounts of the war.

GCM: We’ve seen the term “choose your path” thrown around a lot these days. Just how “free roaming” is Airborne, and do these paths lead to different endings or increase the replayability of this title?

CB: Airborne is VERY open. Once you jump out of the plane, the only limits are the players’ appetite for experimentation. Different play styles, and different weapons and different paths don’t lead to a different scripted cinematic, but they DO create a different play experience all throughout the game. It feels a little bit like a multiplayer experience in the single player portion of the game.

GCM: About how long is the single-player campaign in time and quantity of missions?

CB: There is one jump intro mission and six combat missions. Each of the combat missions is clocking in at about 90-120 minutes per, sometimes longer, depending upon your play style and abilities. 10-15 hours overall, I’d say.

GCM: What special features or tactics are going into Airborne to differentiate this title from the previous MoH games in the series?

CB: It would be far simpler to list what remains the same from previous games. Seriously, this is an entirely new tack we are taking here. The player chooses his weapons, his start location, what battles to fight, in which order, how to play, where to play, where to go; the AI reacts to all of this dynamically and adapts to the players movements and actions. The action and intensity from previous MOHs is still there, but otherwise the gameplay is all new.

GCM: What’s new this year for multiplayer? Any co-op play for the story mode?

CB: New for Multiplayer is obviously a jump component will be involved in Multiplayer along with all of the verticality that jumping into a map implies. While we won’t be doing co-op for Airborne, it’s something we’ve bandied about, and would certainly consider for a future MOH.

GCM: What has the next-gen technology of the Xbox 360 and PS3 allowed you to do that you couldn’t have done two years ago?

CB: The airborne concept at the visual and gameplay fidelity that we are providing wasn’t really possible on previous consoles, there just wasn’t enough raw horsepower to push the polys, shaders, and post effects we’re doing these days. Every generation brings an expansion of memory, and visual and computation horsepower along with all of the implications of filling that new playground space implies.

GCM: Are there any significant differences between the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, either in content or technology?

CB: Significant? Not really. The PC will scale to provide a pleasing experience for those users with less than state of the art PCs, and we plan to take advantage of the six-axis controller on the PS3, but for the most part, you will get a great experience on whichever platform you choose.

GCM: Did you or any of the design team get to jump out of a real plane in preparation for this game, and if so, what was that experience like?

CB: We didn’t get to jump out of planes, but we got to fire live weapons, and fly in a real C47. There are people who are skydivers, but it wasn’t an event we all participated in for “research”, though I wish we had, I’d love to go through myself out of a perfectly good working airplane someday.

GCM: Thank you again for your time! Do you have any last impressions or thoughts for our readers?

CB: Thank you! I think once players get their hands on Airborne, they won’t want to go back to the old style of FPS games of corridor shooting anymore. It’s easy to underestimate how much jumping into the space changes everything. Everyone should give it a whirl and see what we’re all on about. Thanks again!

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